


The Multidimensional Traveler's Almanac

by AXEe



Category: Jenny Everywhere, Original Work
Genre: Gen, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy References
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2020-12-09 03:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20988014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: A handy-dandy, convenient, easy-to-use guide to the multiverse that no multidimensional shifter should be without! Contained within this volume you will learn which dimension is the best dimension to get pizza, what not to say when you're passing through Reality-X.42.01, which dimension is great for honeymooners, and why its never a good idea to question the existence of God in any reality.    All of these helpful tips and dozens of more can all be found here, in the Multidimensional Traveler's Almanac!





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition: This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, that others might use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
> 
> Hello all! More original works from me! This time with help from Douglas Adams so prepare for thrills! Chills! And craziness! Enjoy! :=)

******

Congratulations, dear reader, you now hold within your hands (or similar appendages) a wholly remarkable book. _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_. In here you will find not only a travel guide to the vast multiverse but also where to eat, what universal tangent is the best place to visit if you’re a multiped, as well as information on the varied forms of entertainment available throughout the multiverse, as well as convenient information on the cultures, societies, and governments.

You will also learn why you should avoid carbon-based life-forms if your species is transuranic-based. Which universal tangent is the best place to hitch a lift from a shiftship. You will also find out why Tangent 001.1.0/00 is the best dimension to relax while you wait for the next convergence.

If you are new to multidimensional travel, allow us to congratulate you on your endeavor, interdimensional traveler! As you may know, interdimensional travel—commonly known as ‘shifting’—is not something to be undertaken lightly. But if you are a novice to the art of interdimensional travel here a few of the basic guidelines and frequently asked questions.

**Frequently Asked Questions about Multidimensional Travel**

**Can I go anywhere?**

Sadly, no. Interdimensional travel is only possible between dimensions whose inhabitants have already achieved interdimensional travel, whether through naturally-occurring rips in the fabric of space-time—typically known as ‘breaches’ among travelers—or have developed the technology themselves. That being said, interdimensional travel is not widely known or available in every dimension (for example it may have been discovered by on individual who has yet to announce their discovery to the public), so even though you can’t travel to dimensions that don’t have the capability, you may still find yourself stuck in a potentially hostile dimension as you search for a way out. Which brings us to our next question.

**What is a ‘dimensional convergence’ and why is it so important that I remember how long I have between them?**

A ‘dimensional convergence’ is when the different dimensions align in such a way as to allow for proper and safe transit (shifting). The rate of time at which different dimensions converge to allow for shifting varies from dimension to dimension, either a few seconds to a few years. As such, the digitized version of this guide which you now hold also contains—among other useful features—a timer which counts down the time you have between the shift in and shift out. If you miss your next shift you will be trapped in that dimension until the next convergence.

**What is ‘twining’?**

‘Twining’ is the replication of a sentient being across dimensions. Also known as ‘doppelgangers’ or ‘alternates’, they are that dimension’s version of ‘you’. Almost all individuals have an alternate with the exception of multiversial singularities. Typically an alternate will physically resemble another in appearance but will differ in personal history, in some other cases however your alternate will only resemble you in name only and be completely different in appearance and history, including—but not limited to—gender.

**What is a ‘multiversial singularity’?**

A ‘multiversial singularity’—also known as a ‘multidimensional being’ or simply as ‘muliversials’—is an extremely rare occurrence where an individual may be born and live within one dimension but be capable of not only perceiving the existence of other dimensions outside their own but of traveling between them at will without need for any kind of technological aid such as a shiftship. Multiversial singularities are distinct in that they exist ‘everywhere’ at once, this means that—unlike most other sentient beings—a multiversial singularity has no alternates in other dimensions, they are the only ‘version’ of themselves that exist.

As such, a multiversial may actually change appearance to resemble the native inhabitants of whatever dimension they have shifted to. So, for example, a human multiversial who shifts into a dimension where birds are the dominate form of life will instantaneously and painlessly change into a bird and remain as such as long as they are in that dimension.


	2. A Girl and Her Dog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter TWO! Enjoy folks! :=)

******

> **Excerpt from The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac**
> 
> “Popping the bubble” is a term used by many shifters to describe the physical act of shifting. Since interdimensional travel occurs in three-dimensional space, the breach appears in three dimensions, namely as a spherical ‘bubble’. Upon entering a breach travel is both instantaneous and one-way, ‘incoming’ breaches are signified by a blue shift and ‘outgoing’ by a red shift. Since breaches can appear virtually almost anywhere in three dimensional space, the shifter may have difficulty accessing one (a common complaint to the publishers of this almanac is that too many breaches often appear in mid-air or over open water, something which the publishers of this almanac have no control over unfortunately).
> 
> For this reason, most shifters either secure passage on shiftships or, barring that, carry ‘rift blasters’, which are small, portable devices that can open a stable breach between dimensions in an easy-to-access location (the next updated version of this almanac will include a built-in rift blaster). However in the case of multiversial singularities, a rift blaster is both unnecessary and unfeasible as the very nature of a mutildimensional being can cause a rift blaster to overload. This last difficulty can make exiting a breach for a multiversal a very interesting experience

The alleyway was dark, covered in litter and other trash; a few rats scurried about, looking for scraps to eat, rifling through the discarded food wrappers and cartons. One rat paused as it stood in the dim glow of a streetlamp, the flickering orange glow of the halogen lamp illuminating both the rat and the poster on the wall above it, a faded, peeling poster that had once been brightly colored but now, the elements had since worn it down. Despite that the imagery and message on the poster were still legible for anyone who cared to read it.

In the center of the poster, it depicted an image of a tall and proud soldier holding a flagstaff, the banner atop the staff fluttering in an imagined breeze, the flag—a red banner crossed with a large blue X adorned with thirteen white stars—was tattered but intact. At the soldier’s feet, another solider lay, this one holding a flagstaff of his own, the banner in question was a tattered multicolored banner consisting of thirteen alternating red and white strips and a field of blue in the left canton adorned with thirty-four white stars.

The bottom of the poster bore the message: ‘FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS! KEEP THE DAMN YANKEES BACK! ENLIST TODAY!!’

On the ground, the rat—not being able to read—ignored the bright colors of the poster and moved to continue its search for food, suddenly freezing in place, its whiskers twitching madly before it suddenly bolted, squeaking frantically as a crackle of electricity suddenly flicked across the poster, setting it alight as a second bolt of electricity branched off from the first, then a third, then a fourth, the crackling arcs of energy rapidly spider-webbing across the wall as more shot across the alleyway to the wall of the opposite building before the web of energy suddenly arced upwards in a sharp point, curling around one another to form a shimmering blue sphere which, just as suddenly as it appeared, vanished in a bright flash of white light, leaving a small figure to drop to the alley’s dirty pavement, followed seconds later by another, smaller figure.

Groaning, the first figure rubbed at her head.

“Ow,” she muttered as she slowly sat up, pausing as she examined her hands “oh! Yes! Human!” she grinned and held out the appendages to the second figure “Harvey, look! Finally! No more tentacles!” she grinned.

The beagle looked up at her, tail lazily swishing behind it.

“Yeah,” it drawled “real happy for you”

“Oh! You’re no fun!” the girl scowled as she pushed herself upright, wincing “so, let’s see, we’re on Earth”

“Obviously” the dog—Harvey—drawled.

“…now let’s see just where on Earth we are,” the girl dug through the satchel on her shoulder, unearthing a small, boxy-looking item. Rectangular in shape, it was slightly bigger than her hand but had a tough, reinforced look to it, as if its casing could—and had—taken a beating and kept on ticking. The item may have once been colored but had lost any color it may have once had, leaving it a dull, black-grey color, the casing was also pockmarked with scratches and scuffs and even appeared warped in places, as if it had been exposed to a heat source and had melted somewhat as a result.

Turning the device over, revealed that the bottom half of its surface was taken up by small keypad of some sort, leaving the upper half as a display screen. The keypad and screen were equally as scuffed and scared as the rest of the device, with a noticeable crack running diagonally across the small screen. 

Turning it on, the small screen lit up with a monochromatic green glow, flickering as words began to spell themselves out across its surface one letter at a time, finally displaying the words:

** _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_ **

In a flowing, fancy—almost snobbish-looking—font.

“Right,” the girl muttered “and…,” tapping the small keypad caused the words to disappear, replaced by a loading bar and the words:

**Scanning dimensional parameters…**

In the same flickering monochromatic green glow.

“Come on…,” the girl encouraged “come on…you can do it,” she told the device as the loading bar disappeared and, with another flicker, the requested information appeared on the screen.

> **Multidimensional Tangent 459.00/1.00  
Divergence Factor: Ten  
Point of Divergence: Southern States win American Civil War**
> 
> **History: Following the election of Abraham Lincoln to the American presidency, eleven Southern states seceded from the Union over the issue of states’ rights, forming the ‘Confederate States of America’. Following several battles over the issue, Great Britain and France intervened and brought both sides to the negotiating table. In the ensuing negotiations the eleven rebel states were granted independence and recognition among the international community, on the stipulation that they gradually abolish the institution of slavery.**
> 
> **The United States meanwhile—still smarting from the loss of the eleven states—began a system of increased revanchist policies against the newly-formed Confederacy, resulting in a type of cold war mentality between the two nations that persists to the present day.**
> 
> **Notes: Race relations in the Confederacy significantly better than in U.S. Avoid entering U.S. territory AT ALL COSTS**

Nodding to herself as she finishing reading the results, the girl shut the device off and put it away. 

“C’mon, Harvey,” she called “I think we’re good here”

“Really?” the dog asked skeptically as he trotted along after her “that’s what you said last time and we almost ended up being burned at the stake as heretics”

“Whiner” the girl grumbled as she rounded the corner and was almost-immediately hit by a car.

Bouncing off the hood of the car, she flopped onto the pavement, one leg twitching before she passed out.

Looking between her and the driver now getting out of the car, the dog Harvey sighed.

“Aw, shit” he muttered…

******

**Our Mother of Mercy Hospital**

Dr. Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Lee sighed as she assessed her patient. Although, seeing as how she had hit the young woman with her car ‘victim’ might be a better description. Still, despite the head-on collision, the girl—who had yet to wake up—seemed to be good health, an MRI revealed no signs of any serious injury in her brain or elsewhere, and now it was a waiting game to see what would happen when she woke up.

Giving the small beagle that had refused to leave his owner’s side a leery look, Bobbi examined the girl. She was young, about nineteen, maybe twenty, with a dark, indeterminate complexion that left her ancestry unknown and short-cropped black hair that looked as if she may have cut it herself. Her clothes were simple yet tough, consisting of a long-sleeved grey shirt under a black t-shirt with a pair of tattered, mud-splattered blue jeans, hiking boots, and a leather jacket that appeared to be the most worn-out out of all her clothing.

But the strangest items she wore were a pair of aviators’ goggles and the long red scarf that she had worn around her neck. While the scarf could just be a fashion choice (an odd fashion choice for Atlanta) the goggles were a mystery. They were rounded, with close-fitting lenses that would conceivably cover the whole eye when worn and probably gave her a bit of a bug-eyed appearance when she did so.

At that moment, the girl twitched, groaning as she blinked.

“Easy,” Bobbi soothed “relax, you’re in a hospital”

“Not exactly comforting,” the girl grumbled as she squinted in the bright light, revealing bright hazel eyes. Finally seemingly getting her brain to focus, she turned and looked towards Bobbi “so, you got a name?” she asked with a charming grin.

“I’m Dr. Bobbi Lee,” Bobbi replied, returning the smile “and, I’m also, unfortunately the person who hit you” she admitted.

To her surprise, the girl merely shrugged.

“Eh, it happens” she dismissed.

“Yes…I suppose it does,” Bobbi nodded, hoping that meant that she wouldn’t sue “so, do you have a name?” she wondered.

“Jenny,” the girl offered a hand “Jenny Everywhere” she introduced herself.

“I…see,” Bobbi shook her hand “I actually meant your real name, not your stage name”

“That is my real name” Jenny replied.

Bobbi raised an eyebrow challengingly.

“Your real name is ‘Jenny Everywhere’?” she asked skeptically.

“Yeah, I know,” Jenny sighed “blame my parents,” she shrugged “personally I wouldn’t mind have been named ‘Sarah’ or ‘Samantha’, but nope, my parents chose ‘Jenny’ for me,” she shrugged “oh well”

Bobbi was reconsidering those MRI results when her pager beeped. Scowling, she examined it.

“Sorry,” she apologized “I have to go, but I’ll tell the nurses’ station to change your chart,” she explained “now, as for your condition, I’d like to keep you overnight for observation”

“No problem,” Jenny nodded as Bobbi turned to leave “just one thing, Doc?” she pointed at her satchel sitting on the meal tray in a corner “could hand me my bag? I need to check something”

Seeing no harm in the request, Bobbi did as requested, gently setting the bag on the edge of the bed before she slipped out of the room. Now alone (minus Harvey), Jenny rooted through the bag, pulling out the same device as before, turning it on and examining the counter on a small pop-out display on the device’s side.

**Time until next convergence**  
48:00:00  
Hrs Min Sec  


Nodding, Jenny put the device away as Harvey hopped up onto the bed.

“Forty-eight hours, huh?” he asked.

“Hey, you wanted a vacation” Jenny challenged.

“This is not what I had in mind” Harvey grumbled as he laid down, resting his chin on her hip…

******

Sometime later, Bobbi shut her locker with a tired sigh. When she graduated medical school she had been filed with hope and a zeal for her new job, now, five years on, those dreams were starting to see farther and farther away, what had once had her practically leaping out of bed to greet the day now had her trudging out of bed every day and trudging through the rest of it until it was time go home and start the whole cycle over again.

In short, she wanted—no, _needed_—a change. She needed excitement, adventure.

Little did she know that she was about to get it, for at the very moment, in Jenny Everywhere’s room, Jenny’s copy of _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_ suddenly began beeping.

Sitting up with a snort, Jenny looked around confused before she located the source of the sound.

“Psst, Harvey” she whispered.

“Yeah,” the beagle sat up with a long drawn-out groan “I got it, I got it” retrieving the device, he brought it over to her. The device’s small screen was now rapidly flashing as it continued to beep, a series of words now flashing across the small screen in bold, urgent-looking text.

**DIMENSIONAL INCURSTION  
IN  
PROGRESS**

“Oh…that’s not good,” Jenny groaned as a deep rumble of thunder echoed from outside the building. Getting up out of bed, she went over to the windown and peered out as the cityscape, watching as arcs of red lightning crackled between various buildings

“That’s _really_ not good” she concluded…


	3. Invasion: Atlanta!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter THREE! Enjoy! Because here comes some action! :=)

******

“_…continuing our top story the strange electrical disturbance that startled many Atlanta residents last night has been identified as a form of ‘ball lightning’, a rare and unpredictable form of lightning. Despite the excitement, no fatalities or injuries have yet been reported. This is Tracey Collins and you’re watching CSN_”

The TV continued on as Bobbi Lee finished her morning coffee before grabbing her keys and heading out the door. Stepping out onto the street, she looked around, glancing skyward sent a shiver down her spine. Whatever the news said, the strange ‘disturbance’ last night was far from normal.

“Hello”

Blinking, Bobbi turned at the sound, seeing a young girl holding out a small flag towards her.

“Free flag for Jefferson Davis Day?” she asked, offering the flag.

“Sure” not knowing what else to do, Bobbi took the offered item, moving to stuff it away in her purse and forget it but paused and examined it. The stars and bars wasn’t too much different from the U.S. flag; three red and white strips—or ‘bars’—and a blue square in the upper left corner with a number of stars denoting the number of states in the C.S., in this case sixteen following the purchase of Cuba from Spain in 1866, just one year after the War of Succession ended and the nascent CSA became an independent nation in its own right.

Giving the flag a little flick, Bobbi smirked as she recalled reading some U.S. propaganda about the Confederacy. Despite what they wanted their people to believe, blacks in the Confederate States had had full and equal rights since the end of Robert E Lee’s presidency; the same could not strictly be said for black in the north.

Shaking her head to clear it, Bobbi put the flag away and hurried to catch the bus to work, her thoughts turning towards her newest—and strangest—patient. A quick search of the internet using her meager computer skills had revealed a resounding ‘zero’ on anyone named ‘Jenny Everywhere’, there was no one listed by that name or any of the other common variations as living in Atlanta, the rest of Georgia, or anywhere else in the CSA.

Maybe she was a Northerner? It would explain the odd choice of name. A pseudonym, taken perhaps to avoid the police? But no that didn’t fit either, Bobbi always considered herself to be a good judge of character and Jenny didn’t seem the criminal type, if anything she seemed the type to give you the shirt off her back if you were in trouble.

Getting off the bus at her stop, Bobbi was still frowning as she walked into the hospital’s staff entrance and after signing in, made a beeline for Jenny Everywhere’s room, bypassing coworkers and acquaintances, she stormed into the room in question, finding Jenny sitting on the edge of the bed still in her hospital gown idly kicking her legs like a little kid as she munched on what looked to be a tuna sandwich.

“Who are you?” Bobbi asked point-blank “really?”

“And hello to you too, Doc,” Jenny replied. She popped the last bit of crust into her mouth before answering “I told you, I’m Jenny Everywhere,” she began “I’m…a traveler,” she explained vaguely “I’d suppose you’d call me something of a ‘hitchhiker’ or a ‘backpacker’,” she continued “I just…wander around, seeing what’s out there,” she frowned and turned to face Bobbi fully “now, why do you ask?” 

Bobbi shook her head as she slowly stepped into the room.

“There’s something about you,” she began “just…something about you doesn’t feel…right” she explained vaguely.

“Well that’s not necessarily a bad thing, now is it?” Jenny challenged.

“No,” Bobbi shook her head “I didn’t say that, not at all. But…it’s there,” she shook her head “so?” she asked.

“Like I said, I’m a traveler” Jenny replied with a shrug.

“So…you…travel?” Bobbi asked “just you and…Fido over there?” she nodded towards where the beagle was napping.

“Harvey, yep,” Jenny nodded as something in her satchel began beeping “oh, sorry, hang on,” reaching into the bag, she pulled out what, at first looked to Bobbi like an old GameBoy, but upon closer inspection clearly wasn’t. As she watched, Jenny tapped the small keypad, frowning as she read whatever appeared on the small screen.

Shutting the device off, she quickly put it away before pushing off the bed and reaching out, quickly disconnected her IV.

“Hey, what are you…?” Bobbi exclaimed as Jenny hurriedly grabbed her clothes and began to get dressed, there was a hurried, urgent sense to her motions as she did. Quickly slipping her goggles around her neck like some kind of bizarre fashion choice, she threw her scarf over one shoulder as she grabbed her satchel and then Bobbi’s wrist.

“C’mon,” she urged, whistling for Harvey, who sat up with a grumble but quickly followed Jenny and a reluctant Bobbi out into the hall “we need to hurry,” Jenny continued, sounding as if she was talking more to herself than Bobbi, drawing to a stop as another beeping sound echoed from her satchel.

Digging the small device out, she scowled as she read the screen, the message being displayed not holding any meaning for Bobbi.

**BREACH IMMINENT**

Stilling holding the device, Jenny slowly turned in a circle.

“C’mon,” she muttered “where…” she trailed off as the lights flickered, some going out as others suddenly exploded, raining down a shower of sparks on startled staff and patients. Suddenly a bolt of electricity leapt from one light to another, before suddenly branching off into a second, then a third, and then a forth, the entire crackling web of electricity suddenly seemed to twist together, tangling like a ball of yarn to form a large shimmering sphere of blue-white light.

As a stunned and awed Bobbi watched, the sphere seemed to deform, flattening out in a wide disc-shape before _something_, a creature of some sort, suddenly dropped down from it to the floor.

It wasn’t particularly big, only about three feet tall if that. It had a head, two arms, and two legs, but its arms were longer than a human’s, almost reaching the creature’s knees, and it’s hands only had two fingers and a thumb, while its feet resembled a bird’s talons. Its skin was scaly and pebbly, like a lizard’s, and covered in brightly colored patterns.

As slowly rose to its full height, it revealed that it had a short tail of some sort hanging from its back, and it’s head reminded Bobbi of a bird or a maybe a dinosaur’s, with a blunted snout and two bright yellow eyes.

Those eyes slowly shifted, each moving independently of the other as it looked around, finally both settling on the two women before it opened its mouth, revealing rows of needle-like teeth as it let out a long hissing sound before reaching to the small belt of sorts at its waist, withdrawing an object that resembled a ping-pong paddle of all things, except it was made of metal and the ‘paddle’ had a large hole with fit the creature’s ‘hand’ as it slowly raised the device and aimed the ‘handle’ at them like a weapon.

To Bobbi’s left, Jenny took a breath.

“Run” she hissed as a bright crimson beam of light suddenly erupted from the strange device, slicing across the wall as the ‘portal’ that the creature had emerged from seemed to widen, more of the creature’s suddenly dropping through as people began screaming…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "Stars and Bars" was the name given to the official flag of the Confederate States of America. It had the same basic design of the U.S. flag but instead of thirteen red and white stripes only had three wide 'bars', two red, and a middle one in white.
> 
> The so-called 'Dixie flag' that we all assocate with the Confederacy was actually a 'battle flag' that was used on battlefield in order to differentiate Confederate troops from their Northern opponents. The idea of the Confederacy buying Cuba from Spain isn't that farfetched, in fact in the 19th century a secret society called the "Knights of the Golden Circle" had a plan for what they called 'the Golden Circle' which would have involved the southern slave-owning states annexing part or all of Mexico, Central America, the northern slave-holding portions of South America, and parts of the Caribbean, the idea was to increase the economic strength of the white Southern slave-owners to a point that they could never be toppled.
> 
> After the U.S. Supreme Court rulled in 1857 that the Constitution did not apply to blacks, freed or slaves in the case of "Dred v. Sandford", which increased anti-slavery movements, the Knights of the Golden Circle proposed that the eleven southern slave-owning states should succed from the U.S. and form their own 'confederation', thus kicking off the American Civil War.
> 
> Scary I know.
> 
> As for "Jefferson Davis Day", assuming that the CSA would use his birthday as a national holiday, it would be held on June 3rd, meaning that this story takes place sometime at the end May (assuming that the people in this reality use the same calendar as our own that is :=)


	4. Target: C.S.A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter FOUR! Enjoy! :=)

******

“What is that thing?!?!” Bobbi demanded as Jenny dragged her down the corridor.

“It’s a ‘Tosev’!” Jenny called back over the sound of people screaming as she spied a door and thrust Bobbi inside, following her seconds later “Harvey! Watch the door!” she ordered as she dug through her satchel and pulled out the boxy device again “help” she spoke into it.

The small screen lit up, a small glowing cloud of light appearing in the air above the device, shimmering as it formed into a metallic, robotic head.

“Yeah? Whaddya want?!” it demanded in a gruff, annoyed male voice.

“Scan for any sign of shifting tech that’s _not_ in this building” Jenny ordered it.

“Jeez!” the head exclaimed “it’s always something with you shifters isn’t it? _‘do this’_, _‘do that’_, what about me? Huh? Don’t I ever get a _‘thank you’_ or something? Is that too much to ask?”

“Do it or I’m throwing this thing into the next negative breach I come across,” Jenny snapped.

With an annoyed sigh, the head disappeared with an oddly-cartoonish-sounding metallic _clang!_

“Now, see,” Jenny panted out to Bobbi “this is why I don’t use the help feature” she chuckled.

Bobbi just stared at her.

“Who _are_ you?” she demanded “what are you? Who moved the rock?”

“Oh yeah,” a new voice said “you picked a real fun one here, Jen”

Bobbi turned, her eyes bugging out of her head as she pointed a shaking finger at the beagle standing by the door.

“The dog just _talked_!!” she exclaimed.

“_All_ dogs can talk,” Jenny shrugged “just most people don’t know how to listen properly”

Bobbi took a slow, deep breath before she started slapping herself in the face.

“Come on, come on, Bobbi, wake up, wake up”

“Bobbi,” a hand gently gripped her wrist “you’re not dreaming,” Jenny explained a soft, soothing voice “this is all real,” she explained “now I’ll try to explain everything as best I can, _but_ we need to keep away from the Tosev out there. All right? Now that means that you have to listen and do what I tell you, and above all, _keep calm_. All right? Can you do that?”

Bobbi took a slow, shuddering breath and nodded shakily.

“OK” she panted.

“OK,” Jenny grinned, nodding “OK. Now, first things first, I need to get to the roof, I need to see what they’re doing to the city”

“Uh…there’s a…a way there,” Bobbi explained shakily “it’s around the back, I think it’s old service corridor or something”

“OK, good,” Jenny nodded “can you take me there?”

Bobbie nodded shakily.

“Yeah” she answered…

******

> **Excerpt from _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_**
> 
> If by chance you encounter a Tosev scout during your travels, or—worse—a Tosev colonization army, the best course of action to take is to RUN. A Tosev scout will not acknowledge you as a fellow sentient being unless you yourself are a Tosev, in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading this, since the Tosev Dynasty strictly restricts any and all information on interdimensional travel.
> 
> However, if running from a Tosev is not an option, then you can fight your way out. A typical Tosev is only about three feet—one meter—in height and they aren’t very strong physically either. So if you can manage to disarm him and force him to fight you hand-to-hand you have a very high chance of winning.
> 
> That being said, it’s still a good idea to run

Creeping down the hallway after Jenny, Bobbi tried to keep her breathing steady and even, no mean feat considering that the hospital was being overrun by lizards. Lizards which carried ray guns and had appeared through a portal in the ceiling no less. 

“So, these things,” Bobbi whispered “what are they exactly? Aliens?”

Jenny glanced back at her as she carefully edged round a corner and then signaled for Bobbi to follow.

“I suppose you could say that,” she answered in an equally-quiet whisper “they’re aliens in that they’re not from here and aren’t Human. But, in reality, they are from Earth, just a different version of Earth” she explained.

Bobbi stared at her.

“What?” she hissed.

“OK,” Jenny began “imagine a world where the dinosaurs never went extinct,” she began “now imagine that on this same ‘what if’ world, one type of dinosaur not only survived but managed to become just as smart as you or me, OK? It built its own version of cities, roads, radios, Facebook, Twitter, all of that. Still with me?”

“More or less” Bobbi nodded as they made their way towards a large intersection in the hall. Keeping a careful eye out for any surprises, the three crept along the walls

“Now, imagine that, one day, our dinosaur found out that there are other universes out there, other realities,” Jenny continued “each in a different dimension, but still Earth, just different from the next,” she began “on one Earth the Moon landing never happened. On another, the Nazis won World War II. And, finally, an Earth where the Confederacy lost the war”

“All right” Bobbi nodded slowly.

“Now let’s say that when our dinosaur found out about these different Earths it also found out that its own version of Earth was one-of-a-kind,” Jenny continued “on every other version of Earth it came across humans were the dominant species, not them. _‘Now then,’_ says our dinosaur _‘if we’re one-of-a-kind then that means that we must be destined for something, something big. I know!’_ he says _‘we must be destined to ‘civilize’ the apes!’_ And because their civilization had about an extra million year’s head start on humans in terms of technology, they could—and do—conquer and colonize an entire planet in a little over a week. _‘But,’_ says our dinosaur _‘now there’s a problem, if there was one reality where mammals, not reptiles, became the dominant species then that means that there are others too. We must fix this’_.”

Bobbi stopped, staring at her.

“You’re talking about imperialism” she realized.

“Imperialism at its worst,” Jenny nodded “think about it, whole entire _universes_ all now proud citizens of the Tosev Dynasty, dozens of versions of Earth all now reaping the benefits of their great civilization. Oh it’s great there, you got some of the most advanced medicine in the multiverse, the best standards of living, you just have to give up your basic rights as a sentient being and agree to be treated like a pampered pooch”

“Hey!” Harvey exclaimed “I resent that”

“Figure of speech, Harv,” Jenny apologized “the Tosev aren’t monsters, they’re not evil, just misguided. They honestly believe that by annexing a reality that they’re genuinely ‘helping’ the people who live there. You ever hear of the ‘white man’s burden’?”

“I was born and raised here, in the CSA” Bobbi reminded her.

“Right. Sorry,” Jenny nodded “anyway, it’s the same kind of mindset. I’ve been to worlds that the Tosev annexed decades ago, and the humans living there are treated quite well, but like the old saying goes: a gilded cage—”

“…is still a cage,” Bobbi nodded “so, these ‘Tosev’, they just…appear at random and take over?”

“No,” Jenny shook her head “it doesn’t work that way, you can only travel to another dimension as long as the people living there have discovered how to travel between dimensions themselves” she explained

“We can’t do that here” Bobbi stated.

“Not that you know of, no,” Jenny countered “but, in my experience, it’s usually a lone scientist who stumbles upon shifting technology by accident in his garage or basement. Or attic”

“So…you’re saying that someone, somewhere in the world, has figured out how to do…that?” Bobbi asked.

“Not ‘somewhere’,” Jenny shook her head “I’m betting that they’re right here in Atlanta”

“What makes you say that?” Bobbi wondered

“Because both the Tosev and I ended up here,” Jenny answered “think of it like if you hold a magnet next to a compass; once you’re here you can go anywhere you want, but when you first arrive its nearby wherever somebody else has the same technology”

By this time they had reached a walkway overlooking the hospital’s main lobby. Crouching low, they peered through the rails, watching as the Tosev—now numbering in the dozens it seemed—were corralling the various patients and staff. Despite their diminutive size, it was clear that the lizards were in control here. As Bobbi and Jenny watched, they would scan each person in the huddled group with a small handheld scanner before nudging them forward into another shimmering, crackling sphere of energy, this one a bright crimson red in color instead of blue.

“What are they doing?” Bobbi whispered.

“Processing them,” Jenny whispered back “they’re sending those people back to their own reality for processing, trying to figure out who can do what. Who’d be best for manual labor, who’d make a good civil servant, that kind of thing”

“Well we have to stop them!” Bobbi hissed.

“We will,” Jenny assured her “but first we need to see how many of them are there,” she explained “find out if they’ve taken the whole city yet or just the hospital. And for that, we need to get to the roof”

Tearing her eyes away from the sight, Bobbi motioned in the direction they needed to go.

“That way” she whispered…

******

Slowly climbing out onto the roof, they found the city’s skyline looking much as it had earlier in the day. There were no strange aircraft in the sky, no more strange spheres; it looked for all the world like another, normal day in the CSA.

“Bobbi” Jenny beckoned her over, pointing down off the roof where a group of police cars were now clustered around the building’s entrance, lights flashing as figures in uniforms kept the civilians back as they set up a barricade and cordoned off the area.

“Somebody must have hit an alarm,” Bobbi reasoned “what happens if the cops go in?”

“A massacre,” Jenny answered “the Tosev aren’t naturally aggressive, but they will fight back if cornered, and you saw the kind of firepower they’ve got. What about the cops? What you think they’ll do?”

“I don’t know,” Bobbi admitted “after 9/11, who knows, they’ll probably just storm the place, shoot first and ask questions later”

“Great,” Jenny muttered “that’s just what we need”

“Jenny!” Harvey suddenly called just before a bright crimson beam of sizzling light shot past the two women to hit the ground, throwing up a shower of sparks.

“Go! Go!” throwing herself against Bobbi, Jenny shoved her to the ground as a Tosev rounded the corner, weapon raised.

“Surrender!” it proclaimed. Its voice was male, and had a rasping, hissing quality to it, but there was also what sounded like a slight, uncertain quiver in its voice. Perhaps Bobbi was just anthropomorphizing, but it sounded and looked scared, and she suddenly imagined a young kid who didn’t want to fight, to kill, but who had been seduced by endless propaganda of his government. Like all those boys who had fought and died in the War of Succession, or in the more recent Indochina War, when the U.S. and C.S. had, for once, actually agreed on something and had jointly sent troops overseas to Indochina to try and stop the communist expansion, for all the good it had done. Instead of being a glorious moment of improved U.S.-C.S. relations it had just shown how far apart the two nations had grown since the succession, and how bitter they’d each become.

As the three foot tall, ray gun-wielding reptile approached the two women, his hand visibly started trembling, forcing him to grab his wrist with his other hand.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” Bobbi asked suddenly.

The Tosev’s eyes and head swung in her direction.

“I am not scared!” he proclaimed “I am part of the glorious Tosev Dynasty! Gleaming jewel in the darkness!”

“Oh please,” Jenny scoffed “how many times did they have you memorize that line?” she scoffed.

“You _will_ surrender!” the Tosev insisted, even as the tremble in both his hand and voice grew.

“How many people have you actually killed?” Bobbi challenged “ten? Twenty? No, I don’t think you’ve ever killed before, and I don’t think you want to either” she reasoned

“Be silent!” the Tosev ordered.

“Harvey,” Jenny called “now”

With a growl, Harvey suddenly leapt up from behind the Tosev, clamping his jaws down on the Tosev’s wrist, causing him to drop his weapon as he fell back into a sprawl as Harvey quickly leapt up onto his chest and sat on him, teeth bared.

Retrieving the fallen weapon, Jenny approached the Tosev.

“Harvey” she gestured for Harvey to get off his prisoner as she came over and stood over him.

“Do it, mammal!” the Tosev proclaimed “do it! Kill me! I am not afraid to die!”

Jenny scoffed and then put the weapon away in her satchel.

“Come on, get up,” she ordered “we both know that you’re not going to kill either of us”

Holding his injured arm to his chest, the Tosev slowly stood up, glancing between the two women. Slowly, a bright blue patch of skin under his chin inflated, like the air sac on a bullfrog, as he let out a series of odd croaking sounds.

“Wha…what’s he doing?” Bobbi wondered.

“Crying,” Jenny answered “they don’t have tear ducts like mammals, so this is how they cry,” sighing, she slowly approached the reptile and gently pulled him into a loose embrace “come on,” she soothed “nobody likes to see a grown lizard cry,”

Letting out one final croak, the Tosev seemed to regain his composure.

“Now,” Jenny began “you got a name?”

“I am…T’la’Kan” he introduced him.

“T’la’Kan,” Jenny repeated “that means ‘wise one’ doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” he answered “you know of us?” he asked.

“I’m a shifter,” Jenny answered “I’ve encountered the Tosev lots of times” she explained as she absently examined his injured arm. Seeing the injury, Bobbi came over; pulling out the small first aid she always carried on hand.

“I can help you with that” she offered.

T’la’Kan looked down at his arm and then at Bobbi, then tentatively held out his arm towards her. Smiling, she took the offered limb and examined the wound, it wasn’t particularly deep, but it probably hurt like the dickens. Pulling out a sterile gauze, she carefully cleaned and dressed the wound. Examining the dressing, he poked at it.

“Thank you” he said softly.

“You’re welcome” Bobbi replied.

“T’la’Kan,” Jenny called “I can tell that you don’t want to be a part of this, that you wish it were different. Now, we want to stop the invasion, but we’ll need help for that. Can you help us?”

“But, if I am caught,” he began “I will called a traitor, made invisible”

“That won’t happen,” Jenny shook her head “I promise you. But you have to help us. You’re already taking a risk just talking to us. Can you do that?”

He looked between the two women, before finally letting out a small chirp.

“Yes,” he answered “I will help you”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone thinks that the Tosev sound familiar that because I based them both in appearance and motivation on the Race from Harry Turtlledove's "Worldwar" series


	5. Running The Guantlet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter FIVE! Enjoy folks! :=)

******

The halls were deserted as Bobbi, Jenny, Harvey, and their new ‘friend’ made their way towards the main lobby where the rest of the Tosev were gathered.

“Keep calm,” Bobbi muttered under her breath “keep calm”

“You know saying ‘keep calm’ doesn’t necessarily make you calm” Jenny whispered.

“Shut up!” Bobbi hissed “you’re one to talk! Just who the hell are you anyway?”

“Told you, I’m a traveler,” Jenny replied “except, instead of traveling through Europe or a foreign country, I travel through dimensions, parallel worlds if you like”

Bobbi stopped and stared at the shorter woman, glancing down to the talking beagle, and finally to the three foot tall, upright lizard man behind them.

“OK,” she finally said weakly “sure. Dimension hitchhiking. That makes sense”

“Hey, you asked,” Jenny shrugged as they reached the corner just before where the other Tosev were still processing the patients and staff “OK,” Jenny whispered “we need to close that breach, keep them from sending anymore people through”

“But what about the people that are already on the other side?” Bobbi hissed.

“Oh. Right,” Jenny frowned “hmm, ah!” she grinned “OK, T’la’Kan,” she dug around in her satchel and held out the strange, paddle-shaped weapon “you are going to take us prisoner and lead us over there” she explained.

“Wait, you’re giving him back the gun?” Bobbi exclaimed.

“Relax, kid,” Harvey commented “she knows what she’s doing”

“Thank you, Harvey”

“…most of the time” Harvey muttered as T’la’Kan quickly took the two women and one dog ‘prisoner’. Edging around the corner, they moved past three more guards standing in a row, all of them colored brightly in a series of different, alternating shapes and markings.

Glancing down at T’la’Kan, Bobbi noticed that he had no such markings and was instead colored only a dull grey-green. Glancing back at the guards, it suddenly occurred to her that the colors may have been some form of body paint, perhaps identifying each person’s rank and status. Since none of the Tosev she’d seen appeared to be wearing clothing except for a basic utility belt, it made sense that they’d find some other way of identifying themselves.

She was shaken out of her thoughts as the line moved forwards towards the shimmering, crackling red sphere. This one was much larger than the one that the first Tosev had arrived through, probably about the size of a small to medium-sized car; by comparison, the sphere that the first Tosev had arrived through had been about the size of a beach ball.

As she watched, the sphere seemed to ‘pulse’ rhythmically, letting out a soft, crystalline ringing sound that was almost soothing. It was an oddly pretty sight, shimmering and dancing like the northern lights as it seemed to ‘float’ in the air above some kind of circular platform.

“Stop” one of the Tosev suddenly ordered.

Approaching the line, one Tosev scanned the two people ahead of Bobbi and the others, letting out a chirp before waving them through and into the sphere. Now next in line, the Tosev carefully scanned Bobbi with no apparent difference in anyone else who had passed through. Turning to Jenny, he passed the scanner across her form, the device suddenly and rapidly beeping as it scanned her.

The Tosev jerked back in clear surprise.

“Multi-multiversial singularity,” he called “**_MULTIVERSIAL SINGULARITY!!!_**” he shouted as the other guards suddenly readied their weapons.

Grunting, Jenny gave the Tosev with the scanner a hard shove, grabbing his weapon in the process, before dropping down and somersaulting across the floor. Springing up into a crouch, she fired, aiming at the ceiling, causing chunks of drywall to rain down on the room.

“Go!” she called “get these people out of here!!”

Snapping out of her stupor, Bobbi grabbed an overturned chair and, picking it up, swung it out, throwing it at a cluster of Tosev like a shot-putter, forcing the lizards to scatter for cover.

“Come on!” Bobbi called “everyone outside now!!!”

With a loud clatter, the remaining prisoners all rushed en mass to the doors, causing chaos and confusion among the police still huddled outside (and Bobbi wondered if they had any idea of what was going on inside) but a growl had her turning, watching as Tosev suddenly leapt down from the balcony above, sailing straight towards her.

“Look out!”

A small grey-green figure suddenly slammed into her, knocking her out of the way. Getting her bearings back, she saw that her rescuer had been T’la’Kan.

“Thanks” she panted out as he helped her to her feet. 

Meanwhile, Jenny—ducking fire from the Tosev—rushed towards the circular platform. Digging through her satchel, she pulled out the Almanac.

“Help” she spoke into it.

With another metallic _clang_ the metallic, robotic head appeared.

“What now?!” it demanded.

“Who else has shifting technology on this world?!” Jenny demanded of it.

“Look relax, will ya?” the head sighed “I already found the guy” the head disappeared to be replaced with a three-dimensional map of the city rendered in monochromatic green, a blinking dot representing the location of whoever had found out how to shift between dimensions.

“Happy now?” the head demanded as it reappeared.

“Yeah, pleased as punch,” Jenny answered as she flicked a switch, the head disappearing in a shimmer of silvery light. Turning the Almanac over, she unspooled a cable from its back and connected it to the controls of the platform. The Almanac’s screen lit up, lines of alien symbols scrolling down its surface.

“C’mon, c’mon,” Jenny muttered as the device let out a chirp “yes!” she hissed as she saw the words now flashing across the small screen.

**Reverse shift…INITIATED  
Opening micro-breaches**

With a deep rumble, the sphere suddenly shuddered; changing in color from red to blue before it suddenly seemed to split apart into a series of smaller spheres scattered around the room, dozens of startled-looking people suddenly appearing as the spheres each vanished in a bright flash of blue-white light which suddenly seemed to short out the weapons of the Tosev.

“Bobbi!” Jenny called.

Looking over, Bobbi saw the dozens of new arrivals.

“Over here!” she called out to them “this way!”

The former prisoners, seeing a human face, all rushed towards her as the Tosev struggled to stop them. But now, without their weapons, their small size was now more apparent than ever as many of the fleeing humans simply charged right through them, trampling many of them in their mad dash to the outside and freedom.

“C’mon,” Bobbi looked over as Jenny grabbed her arm “party’s not over yet” she declared as she began to drag the other woman to the door, suddenly pausing “T’la’Kan!” she called over her shoulder.

The Tosev looked over at them at the call, making for a rather lonely-looking image as he stood among his fallen comrades, most of whom it appeared had been trampled by the fleeing prisoners.

“C’mon” Jenny beckoned.

“I have nowhere to go” the Tosev declared.

“Hey, for this you can sleep on my couch” Bobbi called.

“C’mon,” Jenny repeated.

Pausing to gather a fallen weapon, T’la’Kan hurried after them.

“Here,” Jenny shrugged her leather jacket and scarf off, draping the jacket around his form before quickly tying the scarf around his head. It wasn’t the world’s best disguise, but it was better than having people on the street see him in his full, scaly glory.

“Bobbi, you got a car?” Jenny asked.

“Huh? Oh, no, I took the bus” Bobbi explained.

“OK then,” Jenny nodded “we can work around that,” leading the Tosev and doctor out of the building, Jenny approached a police officer standing by an idling police cruiser.

“Excuse me, Officer,” she called.

The man turned, staring at three—four if one counted Harvey—in confusion.

“_Really_ sorry about this” Jenny apologized just before she soundly decked him across the jaw. With a startled groan, he flopped back against the cruiser, before slowly sliding to the ground in a crumpled heap.

“You just hit a cop” Bobbi exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know,” Jenny shook out her hand with a wince “he’s got a very hard skull too,” she added “c’mon, get in” she ordered, ushering T’la’Kan and Harvey inside, a reluctant Bobbi following

“Hey!” A voice shouted.

“Bobbi, drive!” Jenny exclaimed as a pair of cops hurried towards them.

Gasping as she saw the approaching cops, Bobbi hurriedly climbed into the drivers’ seat and, shifting into drive, floored it, the car speeding off with a squeal of tires…


	6. Crossing Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter SIX! Enjoy folks! :=)

******

> **Excerpt from _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_**
> 
> If, by some random chance, you run afoul of the local law, you can expect a variety of differing reactions. If the dimension you’ve shifted into is fully aware of shifting and you have not committed a serious crimes—what counts as a ‘serious’ crime varies from dimension to dimension—then you can probably be expected to be asked to leave that dimension unless you’ve committed a serious crime.
> 
> If, however, shifting is _not_ public knowledge in that particular dimension then we strongly advise that you keep a low profile. Most dimensions whose inhabitants lack knowledge of other dimensions and multidimensional shifting can be flighty and easy to panic when confronted with something that they don’t understand. This is especially true for dimensions that are still at a pre-industrial level.
> 
> Once again, we repeat, KEEP A LOW PROFILE

The police car skidded, fishtailing as it rounded a particularly sharp corner. Behind the stolen vehicle’s wheel, Dr. Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Lee scowled.

“They’re going to follow us, you know that right?” she commented.

Sitting beside her in the passenger seat, Jenny peered at the rearview mirror.

“Too late” she commented as the wail of police sirens suddenly broke the air.

“OK, what’s the plan here, genius?” Bobbi wondered.

“Make a right here,” Jenny instructed as she pulled out the Alamnac and examined it, a three dimensional holographic map of the city suddenly being projected in the air above it in monochromatic green. Studying the map, Jenny frowned as she examined two blinking dots, one moving—presumably representing the car that they were all in—and another stationary, presumably representing their destination.

“Go left” Jenny ordered.

Grunting, Bobbi spun the wheel hard to the left, the car shuddering as it swung widely to the left.

“It’s a dead-end!” Bobbi exclaimed as they were confronted with a single lane street and a rather-sizable-looking brick wall.

“Just keep going,” Jenny insisted “Harvey?” she called “think the slide can handle the extra mass?”

“Your guess is as good as mine” the beagle replied with a shrug (a very odd movement to see from a dog).

“Great,” Jenny muttered as she held out her other hand, curling her fingers close as if she was cupping something small and delicate. As Bobbie watched, a small translucent sphere of pinkish light slowly bloomed into existence from the center of Jenny’s palm, slowly growing until it was the size of about a baseball.

Flicking her wrist, Jenny sent the sphere whizzing through the glass of the windshield where it shot towards the end of the road, right up against the impending brick wall to suddenly expand in size to easily accommodate the car.

“Floor it!” Jenny ordered.

Grimacing, Bobbi stamped down on the gas pedel, gripping the steering wheel tightly as the car shot forwards to strike the sphere. But instead of hitting it, the car passed straight through it, suddenly appearing somewhere else, another, wider street in what looked like the suburbs, the effect had been instantaneous, no flash of light, no sound, no wild roller coaster ride, just one second they were fleeing from the police and the next second they weren’t.

Stamping on the brakes, Bobbi brought the car to a screeching halt, panting harshly for breath.

“How…?” she turned to Jenny, only to find that the girl was slumped over in her seat, panting harshly, like she had just run a marathon “hey, Jenny? Jenny, what’s wrong?” Bobbi asked, reaching out to check her pulse, finding it was steady, but fast, as if the girl was coming down after a long period of activity.

“Just…just give me a minute,” Jenny panted out, gently pushing Bobbi’s hand away “just…need to catch my…breath”

“Doing that takes a lot out of her,” Harvey spoke up “and taking the whole car and all of us didn’t do her any favors either” he added.

“What was _that_?” Bobbi demanded.

“A slide” Harvey answered, as if that explained everything.

> **Excerpt from _The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac_**
> 
> One other unique aspect about multiversial singularities, is that—in addition to being capable of traveling between dimensions at will without technological aids—is their ability to ‘slide’ from one area to another within the plane of a single dimension. Similar to their ability to open stable breaches at will, the ‘sliding’ ability is the opening of a small-scale breach within the confines of a dimension, creating in essence what is sometimes known as a ‘wormhole’ between two points that are not normally connected.
> 
> However, while the ability to slide may help a multiverisal in various ways—such as escaping from a potential threat—it is not without its drawbacks. Chief among them being its short range (a mile seems to be the furthest any mutliverisal has slid) and that it is also very physically taxing on the individual—more so than opening a breach between dimensions—this physical strain is worsened when attempting to slide while carrying a large amount of excess mass

“I’ll…I’ll be all right,” Jenny panted out as she leaned her head back against the headrest “whew,” she sighed “remind me to have everybody _get out_ of the car first next time I do that” she chuckled.

“You sure you’re going to be OK?” Bobbi asked skeptically.

“Yeah,” Jenny nodded “just need to catch my breath,” she explained, and she was already starting to look better, if still a little winded. Grunting, she unbuckled her seatbelt with a visible pained grimace before stiffly climbing out of the car and leaning against the open door.

“Huh,” she said after a long pause “wasn’t expecting white picket fences and pink flamingos”

Finally looking around the neighborhood, Bobbi noticed that the area did look very…idyllic. Like something out of a Norman Rockwell (had Rockwell painted any towns in the CSA). The houses were all neat little craftsman-style structures, with neatly manicured lawns surrounded by white picket fences and, in some yards, a pink flamingo (or two or more) stood watch over the property.

Slowly getting out of the car, Bobbi walked around it to join Jenny on the other side.

“Where are we?” she wondered.

“Dunno,” Jenny shrugged “it’s your universe, I’m just visiting”

“OK,” Bobbi said slowly “let’s try this again, _why_ are we here?”

“Ah,” Jenny pushed off the car door “now, that I can answer. Somewhere in this neighborhood is whoever’s found the ability to shift between realities” she explained.

“So, somebody living here found out how to go to other Earths,” Bobbi stated slowly “and, by doing so, brought the Tosev here” she added.

“See? Now, you’re getting it,” Jenny grinned “the question is…which house?” she held up the Almanac, another map being displayed on its small screen, a blinking dot focused on one building at the end of the street on the left.

Nodding to herself, Jenny put the device away.

“Come on” she said softly…

******

The neighborhood was quiet, unsurprising as it was a weekday, so it stood to reason (what little reason that Bobbi’s day had left) that most of the residents were either at work or at school or otherwise out and about. That being said, there were some signs of life, more than once a resident had come out of the front door and stopped and stared at the five people walking past, many of them focusing on the fifth person in the group, the Tosev T’la;Kan, who despite still being buddle up with Jenny’s scarf and leather jacket, still looked decidedly odd, most especially as he was without pants, leaving his scaly legs and talon-like feet on full display.

Sensing this, Bobbi glanced over at the three foot tall reptile.

“I wonder if they make sneakers in his size” she muttered.

Jenny and Harvey both chuckled at her commented.

“Probably,” Harvey nodded “there are people out there who’ll sell water to a fish”

“I don’t doubt it” Bobbi muttered as they reached their destination, a house at the very end of the street. Unlike the others, this house looked far more neglected than its neighbors, the lawn was overgrown and littered with weeds and random pieces of junk, and many of the windows had been boarded over, while the paint on the house—which may have once been a bright, sunny yellow—was now faded and peeling.

“Well,” Jenny sighed, hands on her hips, as she examined the place “that fits”

“Are you sure that this is the right place?” Bobbi asked “it looks abandoned” she noted.

“Today’s newspaper,” Jenny noted, holding up one of several folded newspapers stacked up by the lone mailbox “and the mailbox isn’t as full as you’d expect” she added.

“Somebody’s living here,” Harvey spoke up “I can smell ‘em”

“So,” Bobbi began “how do we do this?”

“We?” Jenny echoed.

“Hey, this guy—whoever he is—just brought a bunch of overgrown geckos to try and take over the planet,” Bobbi objected “this just as much my problem as yours. Hell, it’s more my problem than yours”

Jenny looked towards Harvey, both of them smirking.

“Well,” she began “I vote for just ringing the doorbell. All in favor?” not waiting for an answer, she marched forwards across the overgrown lawn and up to the porch, the others following.

Reaching out, Jenny pressed the doorbell, a faint _ding-dong_ echoing from within. After a long moment of silence, footsteps could be heard from within. Reaching out again, Jenny lightly knocked on the door.

“Hello?” she called “anybody home?”

There was a sudden _creak_ from the window next to the door, and a long black tube suddenly slowly edged out between two planks of wood that had been used to board the window over.

“_GET DOWN!!!!_” Bobbi cried, roughly shoving Jenny to the ground as a blast of sound and light cracked from the tube, the rifle shot deafening in such close proximity.

“_Go away!!!_” a frantic-sounding man’s voice called out, the _clack_ of the rifle being reloaded following his call “I won’t tell you again!!” he added, squeezing off another shot, the porch’s railing suddenly exploding on a burst of wood splinters.

With a growl, T’la’Kan threw off his clothes, drawing his weapon and taking aim at the boarded up window.

“No!” Jenny hurriedly sat up, grabbing his wrist “you’re not a killer!” she urged him “so, don’t start now”

“He’s on the move!” Harvey suddenly called as the distant sound of pounding footsteps echoed from within the house.

“Right” Jenny snarled. Taking the weapon from T’la’Kan and, aiming it at the door, fired, the door exploding open in a shower splintered wood. Tensing, the five stood still, waiting, but the only thing they heard was the distant slam of a door.

Cautiously crossing the threshold, they entered a dark and musty-smelling room. The room was cluttered, littered with broken, overturned furniture and scraps of paper, but no sign of the resident.

“Christ,” Bobbi breathed “who the hell lives here?”

“Well, whoever he is, he needs to work on his people skills,” Jenny panted out, passing the weapon back to T’la’Kan with a visible grimace “god, I hate guns” she grumbled.

“Same here” Bobbi muttered absently as she tried a light switch without effect.

“That figures,” Jenny muttered “Harvey?”

“On it” the beagle replied, blinking once before twin beams of light—like a pair of flashlights—suddenly shot out of his eyes. Staring at this strange sight, Bobbi frowned, glancing over Jenny.

“Is it weird that that is the strangest thing I’ve seen today?” she wondered.

“Eh” Jenny shrugged…

******

With Harvey acting as a walking talking flashlight, the group made their way through the dark and cluttered house. Finding that the structure was in a state neglect, rats scurried to and fro, running from the light (and were no doubt the only things living in the walls) as water dripped down from holes in the ceiling as flies buzzed about half-eaten half-rotted plates of food in the kitchen (Bobbi steadfastly avoided looking in the sink).

“God,” she whispered “this place should be condemned”

“For all we know it already is” Harvey commented, suddenly coming to a stop and pointing his nose at the narrow door in the corner “down there” he whispered.

Reaching out, Jenny gave the knob a little twist, the knob rattling but refusing to turn. Smirking, she grinned at Bobbi as she held up her thumb and forefinger, a small pinkish sphere like before appearing between the digits, slowly growing in size to about that of a large marble. Flicking her wrist, Jenny sent the sphere towards the door, where it slowly grew to about the size of a basketball, perhaps a little smaller.

Reaching out, Jenny easily put her hand through the sphere, her arm disappearing up almost to her elbow.

“Uh-huh,” she muttered as she twisted and turned her body slightly “and…”

The lock suddenly clicked open.

Pulling her arm back, Jenny smirked as the sphere shrank into nothingness.

“Did you just…reach _through_ the door and unlock it?” Bobbi asked.

“Yep” Jenny grinned.

“Why couldn’t you just go through the whole door?” Bobbi wondered.

“Still winded from the last time,” Jenny answered as she slowly, cautiously, pulled the door open, revealing a dark, steep set of stairs leading down into who knew what “_c’mon_” she whispered.

The stairs creaked as the five slowly made their way down them, brief, intermittent flashes of light lighting up the darkened gloom. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they rounded a corner to come across a sprawling mass of electronic equipment. Thick cables snaked their way across the floor, sprouting from the backs of what looked to be at least four desktop computers, each of which looked as if it had been dismantled for parts and then later reassembled together to form a much larger conglomeration of Frankenstein-esque configuration.

Dominating the room was whatever was giving off the strange flashes of light. It was large, taking up most of the basement’s space and reaching to the ceiling and shaped like large barrel or tube about six feet in diameter. Inside the strange object the cables were connected to the inside of the tube in what appeared to be a random fashion, the outside of the strange object was equally covered in more wires, circuit boards, and cables.

As the group watched a brief crackle of electricity would spark and pop from within the object, some so short as to barely last a fraction of a second, others longer, lasting close to a minute or more. Suddenly the device let out a deep rumbling whine, as if powering up for something. A shudder suddenly ran through the floor as the arcs of electricity intensified, suddenly changing color to a deep crimson as they grew in strength, becoming almost-blinding in their intensity.

Suddenly, with a deep, rumbling, echoing _boom_ of sound, there was an explosion of white light, the shockwave knocking the five off of their feet as the light changed to a deep crimson before receding, a strong wind pulling any loose object towards the object as a familiar bright red sphere suddenly formed within its confines.

Still struggling to get her bearings back, Bobbi sat up just as a figure suddenly rushed past them.

“Hey!” Bobbi lunged, briefly grabbing hold of the figure’s shirttail, only to receive a hard elbow to the face her trouble.

“Bobbi! You OK?” Jenny called out over the wind now roaring through the basement.

“Yeah, yeah” Bobbi answered distractedly as she shook her head to try and clear it as Jenny scrambled to get to her feet.

“Stop!!” she called.

The figure, a pale and haggard-looking man, stopped as ordered, turning to face them. His features were gaunt, made even more so by the flickering crimson light of the breach, the scruffy beginnings of a beard clung to his face, his clothes were tattered and smudged with dirt and grim, his hair was long and greasy looking, as if he hadn’t washed it and a long time.

Staring at the five, he shook his head.

“You don’t understand!” he called out over the now-howling wind. Turning, he leapt into the sphere.

Now fully upright, Jenny glanced at Bobbi and the others. Setting her jaw, she turned and marched through the breach, Harvey and T’la’Kan following. Now alone in the room, Bobbi gave the sphere a leery look and, taking a breath, charged for it, kicking off the dirty concrete floor to leap through it just seconds before it collapsed in on itself.

For a moment the basement was still, and then the device suddenly exploded, the fireball ripping through the house, obliterating it in a matter of minutes…


	7. Orwellian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter SEVEN! And a-wayyy we go! :=)

******

Bobbi grunted as she fell into a pair of slender but strong arms. Like with the police car, the transit through the sphere had been instantaneous, one second she was in the basement of a dilapidated house and the next she was…somewhere else.

“Gottcha!” Jenny grinned as she caught Bobbi.

Wobbling, Bobbi regained her balance as she looked the area they were now in. They’d arrived in a dark and dingy-looking alleyway, it was nighttime, and out in the street proper what looked like a series of searchlights swung back and forth as a large armored vehicle rumbled past.

“Easy,” Jenny whispered as she pulled Bobbi back flush against the wall, a hand over her mouth “I’m not sure where we are yet, but it doesn’t look like the happiest place of earth,” she warned as they watched the large, six-wheeled tank-like vehicle round the corner “OK,” Jenny breathed “let’s just see where the hell are we”

Digging through her satchel, she pulled out the strange GameBoy like device that Bobbi had seen her use before, turning it on, her expression souring as she read whatever was on the screen.

“What?” Bobbi asked “what is it? Where the hell are we?”

In answer, Jenny silently passed the device to her, tapping the screen with one finger.

> **Multidimensional Tangent -450.15/0055  
Divergence Factor: Fifteen  
Point of Divergence: Establishment of a fascist government within the United States**
> 
> **History: During the 1936 U.S. presidential election, third-party candidate, William Dudley Pelley succeeded in winning the election against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and prospective Republican candidate Alf Landon. Although the election was contested, Pelley—like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini—succeeded in successfully establishing his Silver Legion as the dominate political party within the country, which—as of this publication—remains in power.**
> 
> **Notes: Investigators from CORE suspect that Pelley and his supporters may have gained access to extradimensional technology—possibly Elintian in origin—in order to maintain power, and agents of the Silver Legion have been encountered in other realities.**
> 
> **Addendum: Multidimensional Tangent -450.15/0055 has classified as a HIGH-RISK location and the Tangent itself has been placed under quarantine by operatives of the Classification, Organization, and Registration Entity (CORE), access is hereby RESTRICTED by order of CORE. All forms of access—even accidental access—is punishable by IMMEDIATE DISSOLUTION.**
> 
> **Second addendum: There is NO ACCIDENTAL ACCESS**

Bobbi slowly looked up at Jenny, and then past her out onto the street, taking note of several large billboards or posters which seemed to show a woman in some type of paramilitary uniform, one hand held up high above her head in a tightly clenched fist, while behind her what looked like a modified version of the U.S. flag fluttered in an imaged breeze.

Below her image, in large, bright red letters that were clearly meant to catch the eye of any passerby, were the words:

**ONE PEOPLE. ONE LEADER. ONE NATION**

Tearing her eyes away from the disturbing image, Bobbi returned her attention to Jenny.

“Can we get out of here?”

Jenny shook her head.

“Not for at least a week,” she replied “that’s how long we have until the next convergence. Until then, we’re stuck here” she explained.

“Stuck,” Bobbi repeated “you’re telling me that we’re going to be stuck in a fascist country for a _week_?!?!” she demanded.

“Hey, look, nobody told you to follow us,” Harvey spoke up “so, it’s your own damn fault”

Bobbi glowered at him.

“How’d you like to take a trip into the nearest river in a _sack_?!” she spat.

“Whoa, whoa!” Jenny held Bobbi back “now, remember what I said back at the hospital? Keep calm”

“Calm?” Bobbi echoed “sure, I’m calm, I’m perfectly calm, let me just show you _**HOW FUCKING CALM I AM!!!!!**_”

Before she could really tear into Jenny for uprooting her life the loud whoop of a siren suddenly pierced the air, followed by a bright, blinding spotlight.

“ATTENTION CITZENS, YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF CURFEW!” a voice boomed out over a loudspeaker “PRESENT IDENTIFACTION AND PASSBOOKS IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL DETAINED”

“_RUN!!!_” Jenny ordered.

Sprinting down the alleyway, in the opposite direction, the group rounded the corner just as the police opened fire, bullets peppering the buildings on either side of them…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> William Dudley Pelley was a real person. In 1936, he did indeed run a third-party presidential candidate against FDR and Republican candidate Alf Landon as a member of the 'Christian Party" a fascist political party and, in many ways, the political arm of Pelley's other fascist group the "Silver Legion of America" (also more commonly known as the "Silver Shirts" after Hitler's "Brown shirts"), the Silver Legion was an underground, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Christian organization which, in 1934 claimed to have about 15,000 members, but by 1938 that number dropped to about 5,000 members. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which brought the U.S. into World War II--the Silver Shirts were dissolved following a massive police crack down.
> 
> Party founder Pelley was convicted of sedition in 1942 and served fifteen years, being released in 1950, where upon he tried to found his own religion known as "Soulcraft" based on his interest in UFOs.
> 
> Upon his death in 1965, The New York Times described him as "an agitator without a significant cause"


	8. Divergences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter EIGHT! Enjoy folks! :=)

******

The brickwork of the buildings on either side of the group shattered under the spray of the bullets, pieces of masonry raining down on them as they ran, helter-skelter, through the maze of twisting and turning alleyways.

“Keep going!” Jenny called “don’t stop and do not look back!” she added.

“STOP!!” a voice boomed out from behind them “BY ORDER OF NATIONAL SECURITY FORCES YOU ARE ORDERED TO STOP!!!” the voice added, following up the command with another burst of machine gun fire.

“At least give us a chance to stop before you shoot us!!” Jenny called back as the group hunkered down behind what a dumpster, the heavy footsteps of the armed pursuers getting closer and closer.

Slowly, the barrel of an automatic rifle edged round the corner. With a grunt, Jenny suddenly surged to her feet, grabbing the barrel and pulling it and its user forwards, a pulse of pinkish light surging up the gun’s body from her hand.

With a grunt, the gunman suddenly stiffened, jerking like he’d been electrocuted before suddenly going limp, crumpling to the floor in a heap. Gathering up the weapon, Jenny suddenly leapt into the midst of the other gunmen, swinging the stolen rifle like a club or staff, swiftly disabling the eight others without ever firing a single shot.

Panting for breath as the last gunman toppled over to the pavement, Jenny glanced at the gun with a grimace, swiftly disassembling it, tossing the individual components aside before bending down and rooting through the pockets of one of the men, pulling out what looked like some energy bars and a first aid kit along with a small booklet of some sort and what looked like an ID card.

Stuffing these items in her satchel, she quickly stood up.

“C’mon,” she urged “before they wake up and start calling for their friends”

******

The group soon found what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse to hunker down in for the time being. Building a small fire out of paper and other garbage littering the floor they soon huddled around it, each in their own thoughts for the moment.

“Is it always like this?” Bobbi wondered suddenly as she stared into the fire “your life?”

“Not always,” Jenny shrugged “it’s usually better,” she explained “I tend to avoid anyplace that has the word ‘restricted’ in its description”

“So, if getting here is restricted, then how’d we get here in the first place?” Bobbi wondered.

“I’m guessing that our friend from the house of horrors back there is from this reality originally,” Jenny began “he’s probably part of some resistance movement who was either exiled to your reality or, more likely, escaped to there and probably brought weapons or supplies back here” she explained.

“That’d probably explains his appearance,” Bobbi nodded along “he looked pretty sick, probably malnourished,” she reasoned “so…how’d we get here anyway?” she wondered.

“Well,” Jenny began “you can’t just ‘close off’ a reality once it’s been accessed; once the door’s been opened it can’t be locked again, closed yes, but not locked,” she sighed “see, it’s different for me, I can travel between realities at will, I just think of a place and I can go there, but for most other shifters they can’t do that, they need some kind of technology that can open a breach, and those you can block”

“Like blocking a phone number” Bobbi reasoned.

“Exactly” Jenny nodded.

“So…what are you anyway?” Bobbi asked.

“A multiversial singularity,” T’la’Kan rasped out, his first words since they had freed the prisoners back at the hospital “I have only heard about such beings, I never knew that they existed” he continued.

“Well, we’re real,” Jenny chuckled. She waved at him “hi” she grinned.

“So, just _what_ is a ‘multiversial singularity’?” Bobbi wondered.

“I am,” Jenny answered with a chuckle “OK, imagine that for every reality, every _thing_ within that reality is duplicated in another—places, objects, and people. So, that means that there’s probably another version of you running around here”

“Scary thought” Bobbi deadpanned.

“I know,” Jenny nodded “now, in my case, I don’t have a doppelganger, I’m the only version of ‘me’ to exist. In essence, I exist ‘everywhere’ at once, that’s part of the reason I can travel between realities so easily; to me it’s like you leaning to the left or the right”

Bobbi nodded slowly.

“So, what’s your world like?” she wondered.

“Different from yours,” Jenny nodded “different from most, honestly. My world split off from most other realities fairly early on, round about the time of the French Revolution. We’re…old-fashioned, but still advanced. I guess to you it’d be like as if the golden age of the Roaring ‘20s never really ended, but the Great Depression and Second World War never happened either, and instead of developing of the atomic bomb we found out how to shift to other dimensions,” she explained, clearly struggling to find words to explain it “our technology is light-years ahead of yours in some ways, but a lot of other things—our culture, art, is all behind, stuck in the ‘20s or ‘30s. It’s a…stuffy place,” she explained “not repressive, or a dictatorship, but…unimaginative. We found a way to travel between different dimensions and then everybody kinda went _‘OK, cool, moving on’_, you know? Nobody ever really thought about what we could _do_ with that knowledge, good or bad, instead they all just kinda put it under the microscope and sit around stroking their chins watching the universes go by”

“But you didn’t want to do that” Bobbi guessed.

“God, no!” Jenny laughed “no, I wanted to see what was out there, so…,” she trailed off and shrugged “I did”

“So, what’d you do?” Bobbi wondered “steal a car or something similar?”

“Hardly,” Jenny snorted “no, there’s no law in my world that prevents us from becoming shifters, the only thing stopping most of us is that nobody gives a care to actually do it” she explained.

Bobbi nodded, slowly absorbing this new information.

“So, where are you from, originally?” she asked.

“New Troy,” Jenny answered “I think the closest place that you’d recognize would be New York City” she explained.

“Nice place?” Bobbi wondered.

“Nice enough” Jenny nodded.

“So…that thing,” Bobbi began “that little computer thing you carry around, that’s like…what? A guidebook?”

In answer, Jenny pulled the device out, turning it on before handing it over to Bobbi.

“_‘The Multidimensional Traveler’s Almanac’_,” Bobbi read the words flowing across the screen “so, this thing can tell me anything about….anywhere?” she wondered.

“As long as it’s in its database,” Jenny nodded “here,” she scooted over, sitting closer to Bobbi “OK, so, let’s say you want to find out about the last dimension that you were in,” she began “so, you’d type in _‘list last multiversial locations’_.”

“OK…,” Bobbi nodded as she pecked away at the small keyboard “now what?”

“OK, now, see?” Jenny pointed at the list on the screen “it stores up to the last ten locations, so your reality is the second to last one, so, click on that one,”

Nodding, Bobbi quickly figured out the simple up/down arrow keys, selecting the second to last listing.

“And there you go,” Jenny nodded with a smile as the requisite information appeared on the screen “that’s your reality. So, now you can search by subcategories, art, music, culture, history, et cetera,” she explained “just don’t use the help feature” she warned as laid down to try and get some sleep.

Nodding, Bobbi quickly lost herself in the wealth of information contained within the small device…

******

It took her a few tries, but Bobbi quickly got the hang of the Almanac’s interface, finding that it was fairly user-friendly (although the help feature was not only annoying but needed a swift kick in…well…wherever you kicked holographic heads to get them to cooperate). In addition to using the buttons and keys, the device also responded to voice commands too, making searching for something fairly easy.

Deciding to start with something simple, Bobbi first searched for the Confederate States of America, specifically in how many realities it won the war, finding that the number between realities where the South gained its independence and those where it didn’t were about an even fifty-fifty split. In some realities, the South did successfully gain independence from the North only to later collapse shortly after due to various reasons, chief among them being slave uprisings after the Confederate government refused to abolish the practice despite political pressure from Great Britain and France.

In other realities, however, the Confederacy never won their independence, eventually surrendering and being quietly reabsorbed into the Union to varying degrees, in some cases the ‘Reconstruction’ as it was called went fairly smoothly, even wonderfully (if such a thing was possible), while in others the former Confederacy basically became an occupied territory of the U.S. military well into the 21st century.

Bobbi shook her head, awed and yet disturbed at how her entire world, everything she had ever known could have changed all due to one, seemingly insignificant choice made by someone who had died at least half a century before she was born.

For example, in one reality, the Confederacy joined with the Central Powers during the First World War and, upon the Allied victory, was faced with harsh repercussions, leaving the nation’s economy and infrastructure in shambles, resulting in, horrifyingly, a Nazi-like group eventually rising to power in the shattered Confederate government, committing many of the same atrocities that the Nazis had done in her own reality (an irony if there ever was one, she thought, as in her own reality both the U.S. and the Confederacy fought with the Allies against the Nazis).

Bobbi had been sickened to learn that, in that reality, her nation was looked upon by the rest of the world with the same sense of revulsion that people in her home looked upon Nazi Germany. Granted her country wasn’t perfect, and the fact that their war for independence had been fought primarily over the issue of slavery was a sad fact that most modern Confederates liked to avoid thinking about on a daily basis, but to the best of her knowledge no one in the Confederate government had ever committed an act of genocide.

Looking up around the warehouse, she suddenly remembered just where they were. Pulling up the list of last locations, she selected the most recent one on the list, finding that it was the correct dimension and, knowing that she wasn’t going to like what she’d find, began reading…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reality where the Confederate States basically becomes Nazi Germany is a nod to author Harry Turtledove's "Southern Victory" series, which does have the Confederate States become that world's version of Nazi Germany.


	9. The Regime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! Chapter NINE of my original work "The Multidimensional Traveler's Almanac" is being posted! So enjoy! :=)

******

Dawn broke as it always did it seemed, resulting in Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Lee blinking rapidly to clear her eyes as the sunlight streamed into the warehouse. Grimacing, she finally turned off the Almanac and set it aside, the quiet clatter rousing T’la’Kan.

For a moment, woman and reptilian stared at each other.

“So,” Bobbi began “what’s your story?”

The Tosev let out a rasping hiss, that although it sounded menacing, it held no malice that she could sense.

“Primates,” he rasped out “you are…chaotic, disorganized. Not like us”

“No,” Bobbi agreed with a nod “not like you,” she hefted the Almanac “been reading up on the Tosev,” she began “your idea of ‘order’ is a lot like these guys,” she gestured out at the wider world outside the warehouse “you tell people what to think, what to say, how to act. How does that make you any ‘better’ than us?”

With another rasping hiss, T’la’Kan turned away.

“I have asked myself that same question,” he admitted “on my clutch, I promise that no harm will come to you by my hands, Roberta Lee”

“That better mean something” Bobbi growled as Jenny stirred and slowly sat up.

“Well,” she began as she looked between them “you two seem to be getting along” she grinned.

“Well, we haven’t tried to kill each other yet,” Bobbi remarked “so that’s good”

“Yes, it is” Jenny nodded as she dug out the ration bars that she had taken off one of the police officers the previous night “here,” she handed one each to Bobbi and T’la’Kan and tore the third one in half, splitting it with Harvey.

“Jenny,” Bobbi began “can I ask you something?”

“Sure” the other woman nodded.

“Can we do something about this place?” Bobbi wondered.

Jenny paused, her chewing slowing.

“You mean about the government,” she reasoned.

Bobbi nodded.

“I don’t see why not,” Jenny shrugged “we’re here, might as well do some good while we’re stuck here”

“Oh,” Bobbi blinked “huh, that was easy,” she admitted “I was expecting more of a fight that you’d tell me that there are rules about interfering in other dimensions’ societies or something like that”

“If there were than the lizard wouldn’t be here,” Harvey suddenly remarked “look, kid,” he began “traveling through other dimensions is a lot like traveling anywhere,” he explained “sometimes, you see something that is just so stupid and fucked up that you _have_ to do something about it,” he swung his head towards Jenny “that’s what we do,” he continued “we see a problem, we fix it”

“See,” Jenny grinned at Bobbi “Harvey’s not so bad once you get to know him”

******

Having left T’la’Kan behind in the warehouse, lest his appearance attract any undesired attention, Jenny, Bobbi, and Harvey took a walk, trying to orientate themselves. Walking around the city in broad daylight, the two women were surprised to find that it looked like any other large, overpopulated metropolis in North America, people were window shopping, others were opening their shops and businesses for the day, while cars of all shapes and sizes sped past on the street.

But, underneath that, there was a clear sense of fear, the people here were all clearly aware of the ever-present eyes of their government watching them. The posters and billboards adorning every conceivable space only backed up this notion. One poster depicted a graffiti artist being led away in handcuffs by two heavily-armed troopers while in the foreground a gloved hand shook another hand. Below the image was the slogan:

_“If You SEE Something, SAY Something”_  
**Report dissidence IMMEDIATELY**

Another poster showed a row of men and women all dressed in the same kind of paramilitary uniform saluting a modified version of the U.S. flag, with the slogan: “ENSURE OUR NATION’S GROWTH! JOIN THE SILVER LEGION TODAY!” below it. The image of the flag itself seemed to be a modified version of the famous ‘Betsy Ross’ version, with thirteen stars surrounding a large red letter L, the familiar blue square had also been moved from the upper left corner to the center of the flag itself, having been expanded in size to take up a third of the flag’s total area.

Looking around, the trio noticed that many people—men, women, and children—were wearing armbands in the style of the flag.

“Like the Nazi swastika” Bobbi muttered.

“Yeah,” Jenny agreed “OK, first things first, if we’re really serious about doing this we need to find the guy from the house of horrors,” she explained, keeping her voice low, lest they be overheard by prying ears “he’s the key”

“Yeah, but _how_?” Bobbi wondered “I mean, I don’t think we could just walk up to somebody and ask”

As if to illustrate her point, a loud argument caught their attention. Turning, they both watched as an irate customer of an outdoor café berated a flustered-looking waiter.

“…the drink was wrong! My food was _raw_! And you idiots can’t even give me a proper bill! Ten and ten make fifteen?!” the man raged, clearly on a roll and with no intention of slowing down.

“Sir,” the waiter urged “please, you’re upsetting the other customers” he said. As he spoke a heavy-duty SUV pulled up to the curb, two men in full body armor quietly stepping out and approaching the customer, who startled and then visibly deflated as they silently handcuffed him and began to lead him away.

“No, wait,” he tried meekly “I’m, I’m sorry, really, I’ll pay the bill, honest,” he began to struggle against his restraints, clearly starting to panic “no! NO! I’M NOT GOING!!! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!!”

With a hard, full-body lunge backwards, he managed to break free of his captors’ grips, frantically turning to try and run.

He never even got one step forward.

“_Take him down!!!_” one officer barked out. At the command, the second officer swiftly withdrew his sidearm, took aim, and fired. The fleeing man’s whole body jerked, his back arching in a wide arc as he spasmed once, stumbled, and then finally, slowly, crumpled to the pavement.

“Goddamn it!” the second officer swore as his holstered his pistol as he and his partner approached the man, both of them sidestepping the rapidly-growing dark puddle of blood now pooling under his body.

Sighing, both officers unceremoniously took hold of one of the man’s legs each and calmly, coldly, dragged his body back to the waiting SUV.

Feeling her stomach twist at the sight, Bobbi looked away, finding that many of the people around them all refused to look at the scene, many even were clearly pretending not to notice that anything had happened at all as the man’s body was loaded into the SUV. With a single whoop of a siren, the SUV pulled away from the curb and quietly drove off.

For a moment, the air of horrified silence remained, then, slowly, people went back to whatever it was they had been doing before, clearly pushing the incident to the backs of their minds as they continued on with their day.

“OK,” Jenny breathed “that settles it, these guys are going down”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although sadly linked to one of the most repressive and inhumane regimes in human history, the swastika is actually an ancient symbol of hope and healing and is still used in that same form in both Hinduism and Buddhism. When Hitler and the Nazis took the symbol as their own (following Hitler's obsession with the occult), they rotated the symbol on its side, perverting it. Sadly because of the horrors of Nazisim left on our modern world, a once-peaceful symbol is now irreversibly linked to a group of butchers.
> 
> "Swastika" is also the name of a small town in Ontario, Canada, founded in 1906. Following Hitler's rise to power, the government of Ontario tried to change the town's name, but most townspeople resisted, even posting signs that read "The hell with Hitler. We came up with our name first!"

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought :=)


End file.
